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American wages are so low, the robots don’t want your job

The Case for Continued Expansionary Policy at the Fed, a new paper from the Roosevelt Institute, economist JW Mason argues that the real problem is that all economic growth is captured by the rich and super-rich, leaving poor people without any money to spend. This means that there’s no demand for products (because poor people can’t buy them and rich people don’t buy enough extra paper towels or windex to made a difference) — and since wages are so low, there’s no reason for industrialists to invest in automation to replace expensive workers.

In other words.. wages are so low right now it doesn’t even make financial sense for corporations to invest in robots to replace humans! A bit of a paradox, but shows how sorry the state is for human wages overall.